How to encourage healthy diets and support local agriculture

I vividly remember the anxiety of grocery shopping when my children were little. The costs of rent and daycare swallowed up most of our household budget at the time, so I would walk past the produce section quickly, avoiding the fresh mangos and leafy greens in favor of the cheaper fare in the center of the supermarket.

I wasn’t alone. Hawaiʻi’s food costs are 82 percent higher than the rest of the U.S. (as measured by the cost of the USDA’s “Thrifty Food Plan”). So this might sound familiar to many readers who have—at some point in their lives—had to make hard choices at the checkout. In fact, it’s estimated that nearly one in 10 Hawaiʻi residents does not have regular access to enough food for a healthy, active life. (This is how the USDA defines food insecurity.)

Due to the high costs of living, people are forced to make choices between what’s nutritious and what’s affordable, and this is true for a wide range of Hawaiʻi residents, from young families juggling multiple jobs to kupuna living on a fixed income. When the choice is between putting healthy food on the table and paying medical bills or covering rent, it’s not truly a choice at all.

Unfortunately, this can lead to health problems and higher medical costs in the future, perpetuating the cycle of poverty for generations.

To address this issue, food retailers and farmers markets (in Hawaiʻi and nationwide) have been participating in a growing trend: offering dollar-for-dollar incentives when shoppers purchase locally grown fruits and vegetables using their SNAP benefits (the program formerly known as “food stamps”).

Often called “Double Up Food Bucks” (“Double Up,” for short), these nutrition incentive programs are beneficial in a number of ways. Most fundamentally, they help stretch food budgets, which are often tightest at the end of the month, when benefits run low. Hunger is a major barrier to self-sufficiency, and SNAP benefits can be a stepping stone out of poverty for families who otherwise would not be able to pay for things like medicine or reliable transportation to work.